Members of the fourth East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) were Monday sworn-in in Arusha Tanzania.

The ceremony took place after the Kenya parliament last week elected its nine representatives to the regional assembly.

South Sudan will have their seats for the first time since joining the East African Community (EAC).

Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania are in contention for the Speaker's post.

The Speaker is elected by the members on a rotational basis, as per the EAC Article 9.

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East African Legislative Assembly has new Speaker

Kenya and Uganda provided the speakers in 2006-2012 and 2012 -2017 respectively.

Candidates contesting for the speaker's seat are Leontine Nzeyimana, the former Burundi EAC minister, Martin Ngoga from Rwanda and Tanzania’s Adam Omar Kimbisa.

The 3rd Assembly wound up on June 4 and the fourth was expected to have commenced on June 5. However, by then, only Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Tanzania had finalised their members' elections.

The Transitional National Legislative Assembly of South Sudan, had to repeat its elections following an application filed at the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) by a citizen of the country. The application indicated that the members were initially not elected by the country’s parliament.

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South Sudan revokes regional House nominations

The new EALA Speaker, who will take over from Mr Daniel F. Kidega, is expected to guide the Assembly till 2022.